Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Bridal Shower (part 1)

Part 1 of many, I'm assuming. I've never had the honor of throwing a bridal shower. This spring my friend Meghan is getting married. I will be throwing her a shower & am super excited. I love a good party, afterall.

{Me & Megz, Derby Day, pardon the goofiness, the party was in Nebraska}

I have some great ideas about decor & food, but am at a total loss about the rest. Am I supposed to be making this about sharing recipes or gifting kitchen items or buying lingerie? I simply don't know. And activities? Total loss. The issue is that Meghan isn't your traditional, cutesy, bride-y bride. We are going to Vegas for the nuptials & our bridesmaid shoes are hot pink patent pumps.

Help! What are some fun activities that you've participated in or liked from your showers?

I think the thing to keep in mind is that it can be whatever you want it to be. Lingerie is typically gifted at the bachelorette party, in my experience, but you could do anything from a couples shower (like a cook-out), to a girls-only tea-party style thing to a stock-the-bar party. One of my friends went to a shower once where everyone brought monogrammed gifts which I thought was a neat idea.

I think a fun game is when before the shower you ask the groom a bunch of questions (Who kissed who first? What was the first meal she made for you?) and she can answer them while opening gifts. It's pretty cute!

My favorite shower game is to give the bride to be a questionnaire that she fills out and then all the guests have to figure out the right answers to questions like...where did the bride go to school...what is her favorite food, etc.

First of all, pink patent pumps? This bride rocks. Don't worry about activities, do whatever you think is fun and then go out and have fun. If you get too structured, you could miss out on something else more exciting. Brainstorm with her or your girlfriends about what would be fun and you'll think of something eventually :) Good luck!

The most fun I had at a bridal shower was a tea theme. We each got our own tea pot and got to brew our own tea from a selection of 20394203 teas. Fun. Pick something she likes and run with it :) I'm sure it will be fantastic!

Just stumbled upon your blog - how fun. I love the pink patents. I hosted a shower when my sister was getting married and we did a really fun thing - the guests were given (in advance) a card on which to write their best piece of marriage advice. They attached this to the gift (which they were encouraged to connect to their gift, if possible). I read the advice out loud to the group while my sis opened the gift. She then tried to guess which one of the guests had give the gift/advice. It was really fun! And, it lent itself to lots of unique gifts and creative advice. I put all the cards into a small photo album for her so she could read through them any time. My gift to her was a beautiful buttery soft, off-white wallet that I knew she loved. My advice was "While married couples should share most everything, every wife should have her own "fun" money." My aunt loved this idea and thought it was so true that she slipped my sis $100 bill to put in her new wallet.

I think a traditional shower is more home related and if you want to do the lingerie thing have a personal shower or at the bach party have the party goers bring lingerie. That's what we did for my besties. : ) Planning a shower is a blast!

The best showers I've participated in have been those that are more casual in terms of structure--at someone's home where the guests mill around and enjoy a buffet and some champagne. One cute idea is having shower guests fill out postcards (before the bride arrives) that will be sent to the bride and groom either the day before the wedding as good luck wishes or as a welcome home after their honeymoon.

Some people spend on their bridal showers but it’s not necessary. One of my pals had a Hawaiian luau bridal shower theme at a friends house and it was remarkable! We found lots of terrific ideas on this website if you are looking to save time… www.amazingbacheloretteparty.com